Eagles Gut Out 2-1 Win at SDSU

The Eastern Washington University women's soccer team took advantage of the chances it earned on Friday evening (Sept. 12) to defeat South Dakota State 2-1. The game was Eastern's first at the Jackrabbit Invitational, hosted by SDSU.

Abby Jensen scored her second goal of the season in the 16th minute to give the Eagles a 1-0 advantage. Then Chelsey Hannesson put away a free kick at the 61-minute mark to earn Eastern Washington a commanding 2-0 lead.

South Dakota State, however, were not going to go down quietly, as the Jackrabbits cut the lead in half with a goal just over eight minutes from time. Then SDSU put the ball into the goal just after the referee blew for full time when a cross was headed towards, and ultimately into, the net. Fortunately for the Eagles, it did not cross the line before time expired.

Eastern goalkeeper Jessica Blessard had 12 saves in the contest, the most by an Eagle since Tiera Como tallied 16 in a 1-0 loss to Weber State on Oct. 19, 2006. It was also a personal high total. Jocelyn Bement had two shots in the contest to lead EWU in that category.

"I am very happy with how hard we worked tonight," head coach George Hageage said. "We created our own chances. We did not play particularly well, but we put away the chances we had. Also, Jessica (Blessard) played well in goal and was focused. The soccer gods were smiling on us a little today.

"(South Dakota State head coach) Lang (Wedemeyer) has a well organized, attacking team and beat Iowa last weekend. This is one of those games where the other team had the run of play, but we made our own luck, got our first win and are pretty happy at this point."

In the opening contest of the Jackrabbit Invitational, Iowa State defeated North Dakota State 4-1. Eastern will take on NDSU (3-3-0) at 8 a.m. Pacific Time on Sunday (Sept. 14) to wrap up its tournament play.